http://www.dzogchen.org/donations/feed/0Retreatshttp://www.dzogchen.org/retreats/
http://www.dzogchen.org/retreats/#commentsMon, 13 Jan 2014 03:14:41 +0000http://www.dzogchen.org/?p=1257Enjoy a meditative retreat to refresh your body and spirit. Since the first Dzogchen Center retreat with Lama Surya Das in 1989, we have evolved a rhythm that creates an experience that is relaxed but focused, quiet but joyful, intense but expansive.

It is with great delight and appreciation this year that we celebrate the auspicious 21st anniversary of the founding of Dzogchen Center and Dzogchen Retreats by Lama Surya Das in 1991. There have been over one hundred intensive silent group Dzogchen Meditation Retreats of eight to ten days duration over the past twenty one years, around the United States.

As many of you know, our revered and beloved Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche himself instructed Lama Surya, his Dzogchen lineage holder and American Dharma heir, to establish a Dzogchen Foundation and a Dzogchen hermitage/retreat center in America and train people in our nonsectarian practice lineage. Khenpo had the special gift to see and recognize a ripeness for Dzogchen transmission in the modern-day western world, and generously shared it with people of all kinds from all walks of life. As a result, Dzogchen Center was founded in 1991 with Khenpo’s blessing and the help of a few key supporters, in the spirit of awakening together for the benefit of one and all.

During the many years since then, Lama Surya has also been able to fulfill the second part of Khen Rinpoche’s personal instruction, by establishing Dzogchen Osel Ling retreat center and hermitage (the Dzogchen Lighthouse), near Austin, Texas. The property itself, scenically situated on 40 acres overlooking the Pedernales River, was a generous gift from one of Lama Surya’s heart-students. Through the generosity of multiple kind donors and devoted practitioners, it has served as a sanctuary of highest wisdom teachings, advanced retreats, hundred day monastic training sessions, and peaceful refuge for many people since 2002—ten years ago this year.

The last twenty-one years have been vibrant, as Dzogchen Center students, volunteers, contributors and other friends have joined to support Lama Surya’s original “Mission of Transmission”— transmitting the rare and precious Dzogchen teachings in the West, in a joyous and skillful way accessible to all, and allowing us to connect directly to the infinitely wise and compassionate Buddha within, enabling us to actualize the Diamond Rule of “seeing the Buddhaness, the light, in everyone and everything” through the innate Great Perfection teachings of Dzogpa Chenpo. Emaho!

We invite you to celebrate with us during our special 21st Anniversary Year Retreats, and to help sustain the blessings of such valuable, joyous and much-needed work throughout this 21st Century. May our collective efforts continue to blossom for generations to come.

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape.
Blessed are the patient, for they shall be waited on and attended to.
Blessed are the generous, for they shall receive abundantly.
Blessed are the grateful, for their life shall always be bountiful.
Blessed are the wise, for they know not in excess.
Blessed are the lovers, for love is theirs for the asking.
Blessed are the healers, for their world and they too shall be healed and well.
Blessed are those who listen, for they shall be heard and understood.
Blessed are those who choose to be kind rather than right, for they shall have long-lasting beautiful relationships.
Blessed are those mates who have made two lives as one.
Blessed are the open-minded and warmhearted, for they shall receive all they need.
Blessed are the learners, for they shall be edified and fulfilled.
Blessed are those who know how to receive as well as to give, for inexhaustible richness is theirs.
Blessed are the goodhearted, for they shall live long and harmoniously.
Blessed are the curious, for wonderment is theirs.
Blessed are the awakeful, for they shall see things as they are.
Blessed are those who donâ€™t know it all, for they shall discover truth through doubt and inquiry.
Blessed are those without many expectations and appointments, for they shall not be disappointed.
Blessed are the content, for they have arrived and shall be completed.
Blessed are the underdogs, for their loyalty and purity shall be rewarded in all walks of life.
Blessed are those who need little for they shall find simplicity and ease.
Blessed are the forthright, for they shall right the world and speak truth to power in love.
Blessed are the altruists, for they shall usher in the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the leaders who inculcate leadership instead of followership.
Blessed are the servants, for they shall be served and attended to.
Blessed are the pray-ers, for life is fragile, fleeting, precious and needs to be handled with prayer.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall find peace and well-being.
Blessed are the joyful for joy and happiness is theirs.
Blessed are the co-meditators, for they shall arrive together.
Blessed are the first light rays of each morning, for they convey the gift of awakening.
Blessed are those who notice, for they shall find small delights around every corner.
Blessed is the reader who brings the writerâ€™s creativity alive.
Blessed is this life we share together; handle with prayer!
Blessed be.